The present invention relates to a device for controlling external medical treatment with the aid of light, more specifically with light that palliates and/or cures different states of diseases.
Swedish Patent Specification No. 502 784 for example describes an apparatus for external medical treatment with the aid of light. The apparatus includes a light emitting device which is intended to be held against or in the close proximity of the patient""s body, and drive means for operating the light emitting device. The light emitting device includes light emitting diodes or corresponding elements and is adapted to emit infrared light. According to the invention described in this patent specification, the means for driving the light emitting device is adapted to control said device to emit infrared light in a first stage and thereafter to emit visible light in a second stage. The drive means is also adapted to control the light emitting device to pulsate the infrared light and the visible light emitted, in accordance with a predetermined series of pulse frequencies.
It is also known to emit other types of monochromatic light for treating different states of diseases.
It is also known that a very good result can be achieved when treating solely with one or more types of monochromatic lights other than infrared light, such as with visible light of different colours, emitted according to a certain pulse frequency.
It has been found that an apparatus of the aforesaid kind can be used very successfully for treating many different types of diseases, wounds and injuries, for instance sport sustained injuries, stretched muscles, muscular pain, joint pain, headaches, various inflammatory conditions, various skin complaints, such as acne, back pains, etc., provided that the light is emitted in a certain way. In this regard, treatment with light has a favourable influence on injury healing processes and will palliate and/or cure various diseases.
There is thus an understanding that treatment with certain light that is emitted in certain frequency series will have a significantly greater effect in shortening the time taken to cure or palliate a disease.
According to said patent specification, data corresponding to the light treatment concerned is keyed into a computer through the medium of a computer keyboard.
According to another Swedish patent specification, viz Swedish Patent Specification No. 9900074-7, a greater or lesser part of the electronics required for energising the light-emitting diodes over certain time periods and at certain pulse repetition frequencies is provided in the light emitting device. According to one embodiment, all of the necessary electronics is mounted in the light emitting device.
Treatment of a complaint or injury is normally made by repeating a certain treatment a certain number of times, or the complaint/injury is subjected to a given number of successive treatments which differ from time to time.
In the known technology, it is thus necessary for the operator to keep an account of the treatments that shall be carried out and also an account of the order in which said treatments shall be performed and to set the apparatus correctly for a given treatment and to key-in the requisite data.
The present invention solves this problem.
The present invention thus relates to an apparatus for controlling external medical treatment administered with the aid of light, wherein the apparatus includes a light emitting device which is intended to be held against or in the close proximity of the patient""s body, and drive means for operating the light emitting device, wherein said light emitting device includes light emitting diodes or corresponding elements that emit monochromatic light, wherein said drive means is adapted to control the light emitting device to emit one or more types of monochromatic light over one or more predetermined time periods and to pulsate the light emitted in accordance with a predetermined pulse frequency or series of pulse frequencies over said time periods, wherein said drive means includes a computer and diode drive circuits, wherein the computer includes an input means for the input of data relating to the treatment concerned, wherein the computer is adapted to deliver electric signals to the drive circuits and the intended light-emitting diodes are adapted to emit light within predetermined time periods and at predetermined pulse repetition frequencies, and wherein the control apparatus is characterised by a machine readable card and an input device in the form of a card reader; in that the machine readable card is adapted to contain information relating to one or more treatment programs; and in that the card reader is adapted to deliver information read from said card to said computer.
The invention will now be described in more detail partly with reference to an exemplifying embodiment thereof shown in the accompanying drawings, in which
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an apparatus of the aforesaid kind;
FIG. 2 is a side view of a light emitting device;
FIG. 3 illustrates a modified version of the inventive apparatus; and
FIG. 4 illustrates a machine readable card.